Innovate UK has the following secondment opportunity available for employees of Innovate UK Business Connect:

Applications must be submitted by

Innovation Lead - Growth Cohort , Clean Energy Investment & Scale Programme

We are looking for an Innovation Lead -Growth Cohort  to lead engagement with and oversight of a cohort of businesses seeking to grow and scale in the clean energy sector.

*Please note this advert will close on the 30th of June 2026 at 23.59pm.

Watch our video “Why Join Innovate UK?” here.

Title:                  Innovation Lead - Growth Cohort , Clean Energy Investment & Scale Programme

Band:                UKRI Band F (UKRI Ts & Cs)

Salary:              £58,589 gross per annum

Reports to:     Head of Clean Growth Strategy & Impact

Location:        Field based

Contract:        Permanent

Innovate UK recognises the importance of work-life balance and we will be happy to discuss any requests for flexible working arrangements.

Context:

We are looking for an Innovation Lead -Growth Cohort  to lead engagement with and oversight of a cohort of businesses seeking to grow and scale in the clean energy sector. This role is central to helping innovative companies access support, accelerate their growth journey, and deliver solutions that contribute to the UK’s clean energy ambitions. 

You will act as a relationship manager and critical friend, understanding businesses’ growth journeys and guiding businesses through funding processes to ensure that they have the tools, knowledge and connections to succeed.  You will liaise externally with investors and industry stakeholders.  You will understand growth barriers to the cohort and proactively develop solutions.  You will meet with businesses regularly and keep track of milestones and programme impacts. 

We particularly welcome female applicants as women are under-represented within Innovate UK in this type of role.

Job Purpose:

The UK faces a critical scale-up challenge which is particularly acute for capital intensive innovation within Clean Energy sectors.  While early-stage support is strong, companies in these sectors struggle to secure growth-stage capital, to deploy First-of-a-Kind (FOAK) projects, and reach their commercial potential in the UK (Science & Technology Select Committee, 2025). Clean Energy sectors deploy capital intensive solutions, requiring a higher risk appetite from investors compared to other high growth sectors such as fintech and AI. Therefore, to scale innovations within these sectors Innovate UK must focus on derisking capital intensive investment at the later stages. 

Over the next 4 years, Innovate UK’s Clean Energy Investment and Scale programme will deliver a suite of interventions to unlock greater late-stage R&D and early-stage growth capital, catalysing the scale up of innovative and high growth businesses in target Industrial Strategy sectors. It will scale innovative businesses in Clean Energy sectors faster by unlocking investment and demand in sectors which transform UK and global economy. 

As part of this Programme, Innovate UK will create Growth Cohorts to deliver tailored and agile growth-centred support to rapidly scale cohorts of high growth potential companies. Growth Cohorts will enable businesses to access Innovate UK funding and support when it is needed, derisk businesses for late-stage investment, build a scaling ecosystem that accelerates businesses through their inflection points, and enable access to global markets. 

Key Responsibilities and Accountabilities:

Manage Cohort Relationships: 

• Identify high potential Cohort Members, acting as a champion for the Growth Cohorts initiative  
• Serve as the primary contact for a portfolio of clean energy businesses (potential and onboarded Cohort members) building strong, collaborative relationships, across the lifetime of their engagement with Growth Cohorts (including pre- & post-flight). 
• Build and maintain relationships with industry partners and stakeholders, including spotting and acting on opportunities to enhance the Growth Cohort experience and support offer. 
• Identify and (working with Innovate UK Business Connect) organise cross cohort activity such as showcases, roundtables, peer to peer networking etc 

Support Funding Success: 

• Support successful cohort businesses to navigate eligibility criteria, and application guidance for the programme 
• Provide clear, timely guidance on Innovate UK funding processes and requirements. 
• Support successful Cohort members to co-design their tailored support packages and application submission into the Full Stage Application 
• Ensure funded businesses deliver against agreed milestones and objectives to reach their next inflection points on their growth journey. 
• Support engagements between the businesses and the Invest Co, ensuring the business utilises the skills, knowledge and advice of this advisory network. 
• Support company pivots and track company milestones, ensuring companies use Innovate UK to maximise their growth journey, and to manage performance including where companies are not performing as expected. 

Enable Impact: 

• Monitor project progress, identify risks, and support businesses to resolve challenges 
• Report to the programme lead and through appropriate  governance routes, identifying businesses that are underperforming 
• Share insights and best practice to maximise innovation and commercial success. 
• Ensure cohort companies are delivering against milestones and producing timely reports to the advisory board 

Collaborate Across Innovate UK and externally: 

• Work closely with colleagues on the Clean Energy Investment & Scale Programme, across UKRI, government partners, and external stakeholders to deliver a seamless customer experience. 
• Leverage Innovate UK products and services and support businesses to engage with and access support from across the Innovate UK system 
• Attend Cohort events, industry events and conferences and Represent Innovate UK at events, workshops, and sector engagement activities. 

This is not an exhaustive list and you might be encouraged to undertake any other duties across the wider directorate, commensurate with the Band and level of responsibility of this post, for which the post holder has the key experience and/or training.

Shortlisting criteria

(S) – Assessed at shortlisting

(I) – Assessed at interview

(S&I) – Assessed at both shortlisting and interview

Person Specification:

Experience & Qualifications:

Essential –

• Strong background in account/relationship management, customer engagement, or programme delivery. (S&I) 
• Experience of working directly with founders and entrepreneurs, supporting SMEs or start-ups, and confidently engaging directly with businesses (S&I)
• Business Growth experience: understanding of growth plans, including market entry, diversification, and international expansion (S)
• Industry knowledge in the clean energy and UK business and investment landscape including; 
  • established networks and working relationships with key industry stakeholders including corporates, investors, and industry bodies 
  • familiarity of policy and compliance regulations, especially those affecting businesses growth 
  • awareness of disruptive technologies, and of the challenges businesses face in scaling in these sectors (S&I)
• Excellent communication and relationship management skills (I)
• Able to work independently, proactively and with resilience, including taking ownership of their own work and delivering high-quality outputs (S) 
• Able to organise and prioritise own workload, manage multiple priorities and deliver results in a fast-paced environment (S&I).

Competencies:

All team members demonstrate compatibility with and capability against our Core Competencies such as:

Thinking and Problem Solving – Stakeholder management – Communication skills – Influencing – Self-awareness/self-management – Strategic awareness – Working with others– Project management

Some of the above competencies will be assessed at interview stage, in addition to the criteria’s listed in the person specification.

Travel Requirements:

Field-based: There will a requirement to travel, mostly national, and there is some flexibility in this. Innovate UK staff make extensive use of telepresence tools for meetings to minimise unnecessary travel.

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion:

Innovate UK is a diverse workforce of people. We believe that encouraging these differences and drawing the best from them will build a productive environment in which everyone feels valued, where talents are fully utilised and in which organisational goals are met. Underpinning this is a belief that it is a fundamental right for everyone to be treated equally, with fairness, respect and dignity. We will act directly and use our influence to ensure that this right is promoted and upheld; we encourage applications from all those who meet the criteria set-out in our role profiles.

Equal Opportunities:

We are an equal opportunities employer, committed to employing any person who meets the criteria for our roles. When undertaking recruitment we may require applicants to undertake certain tests or assessments, some of which will be online and others may be in-person. If you have a disability, heath condition or specific learning difficulty such as dyslexia then you may be entitled to support with undertaking this type of assessment exercise. Where you feel that reasonable adjustments are required to support you, we ask that you advise your recruitment point of contact in a timely fashion, providing further information. In confidence, Innovate UK will then review your application for adjustments and provide support as required.

UK Research and Innovation:

Innovate UK is partner organisation within UK Research and Innovation. If successful in securing the position, your employer will be UK Research and Innovation. More information can be found online http://www.ukri.org/.

Employee Benefits:

We offer a benefits package crafted to provide an excellent work/life balance. This includes 30 days’ annual leave, 10.5 public and privilege days, flexible working hours, an exceptional defined benefit pension scheme, and access to a variety of support networks and discount schemes.

Benefits of working at UK Research and Innovation (UKRI)

Flexible Working:

We understand the importance of work-life balance, and are happy to discuss the possibility of flexible working with applicants.

Artificial Intelligence:

Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be rejected and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action.

Pre-employment Screening:

To enable us to hire the very best people we will conduct a comprehensive pre-employment check on successful applicants as part of the recruitment process.

The role holder will be required to have the appropriate level of security screening/vetting required for the role.  UKRI reserves the right to run or re-run security clearance as required during the course of employment.

UKRI supports research in areas that include animal health, agriculture and food security, and bioscience for health which includes research on animals, genetic modification and stem cell research. Whilst you may not have direct involvement in this type of research, you should consider how this aligns with your personal values or beliefs. To enable us to hire the very best people we will conduct a full and comprehensive pre-employment check as a crucial part of the recruitment process on all individuals that are offered a position with UKRI. This will include a security check and an extreme organisations affiliation check.

Applications must be submitted by;